Bodog Makes Some Serious Changes Including Restricting US States

Monday, March 26th, 2012 by Ryan

In a bit of incredibly interesting poker news, the massive online gambling site Bodog has made some serious changes to their all-around gambling site which include restricting a few specific places. One of the largest moves was the fact that they are now no longer going to be in the Spanish market, and have officially left Spain all together. It was just a few weeks back that the domain name Bodog.com was seized, and the founder of the company was also indicted in the state of Maryland. After reading that, it probably doesn’t come as much of a shock that the site almost immediately moved out of Maryland as well. The move out of Maryland was seen, but the one out of Spain came ahead of the country’s new poker regulations that were placed.

While Calvin Ayre was indicted in Maryland, the move out doesn’t come as a shock, but they are not the only US state that will no longer be allowed to remain in the action either. These states include the likes of Utah, Washington State, and New York as well. Both Utah and Washington have both passed legislation which bans online poker, and the indictments which came on Black Friday against three of the largest online poker sites out there were done by US Attorney Preet Bharara, who lives in New York. Any player in this site who uses the site Bovada to play online poker hasn’t been stopped, but they are no longer allowing new players from the sites to join up. As far as the situation in Maryland goes, the current players were all notified that their balances would be processed and sent to them, meaning that they are completely done with the area.

Spain is currently in the mix for a gambling license, but nothing has been done yet. There have been quite a few companies who are applying for the license, but Bodog just decided to take their leave from the country all together rather than deal with the online poker regulations that are on the way. On top of this though, many people feel that Spain isn’t considered a huge market for online poker, mainly because of the licensing and taxation that occur in the country.

There was no mention of the moving out of the states by Bodog, but they did release a statement about their decision to move out of Spain and Spanish territories moving forward. They stated that none of their services will be offered to players, and that their account will be disabled at the end of March, and that players are no longer allowed to make any additional deposits either.

This is just another interesting topic that we’ll have to keep an eye on moving forward with Bodog. The movement out of Spain, the restrictions that Bodog and Bovada have put on the United States, as well as the indictment which is pending against Calvin Ayre are all things that are worth keeping your eye on. We’ll keep you updated on where all of this stands as more information is released as well.